Ryan budget plan will destroy Medicare

Last year, Rep. Ann Marie Buerkle voted for legislation that, according to the Wall Street Journal, ''would essentially end Medicare.'' On Thursday, she voted for a new version of this same plan to end Medicare as we know it. While she may pay lip service to the importance of this vital program, her actions in Washington tell a different story. Buerkle stands shoulder to shoulder with her tea party colleagues who would like nothing more than to see Medicare ''wither on the vine,'' as Newt Gingrich once said.

When Buerkle talks about how to ''strengthen the program so it remains viable for generations to come,'' we should be 100 percent clear that what she means is replacing the guaranteed coverage of Medicare with a privatized voucher program with no guarantee of affordable care. According to the AARP, this privatized program ''is likely to simply increase costs for beneficiaries while removing Medicare's promise of secure health coverage — a guarantee that future seniors have contributed to through a lifetime of hard work.''

This legislation does nothing to fix our long-term problems with debt. It would not balance our budget for decades. Instead, it gives tax breaks to the very wealthiest Americans by taking from seniors and the middle class. This is the wrong path. We need to maintain the Medicare guarantee of affordable coverage instead of shifting ever-higher costs onto seniors.

Dan Maffei
Democratic candidate for the 24th Congressional District
Syracuse